Mighty Hero Camron

Our Mighty Hero for May is this stud Camron.

On February 5, 2016, Camron Jas Talbot, 9 years old was diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of Cancer. The week prior to Camron's diagnosis he portrayed symptoms that anyone would just view as normal, maybe viral up until the night he was diagnosed. 5 days before he vomited one time, and 2 days before he had a high fever. He seemed weak and pale but nothing more than something that would seem common. Typical tough Camron behavior, the night we were in at Primary's he went to school that day and had basketball practice. About 10 pm that night, February 4th he was in a lot of stomach pain and as tough as we know Camron to be, we knew something was seriously wrong. His septic condition was rapidly getting worse and we arrived in the Emergency Department around 11 pm. In the Emergency Department they did lots of lab work, ultrasounds, and eventually a CT scan. They all thought at first that it was a perforated appendicitis but his symptoms didn’t quite add up to the typical perfed appy. Once the CT scan was performed (and a wait that seemed like forever) about 6 physicians walked into our room and that is when they broke the news to us. “Your son has a perforated bowel from a tumor”. AKA your son has cancer, he is septic, and we need to rush him into the Operating Room.

Camron was rushed into surgery at 4:30am and we made the necessary phone calls. First one to our other boys as we were worried we may never see Camron again. After 3 looooooong hours of surgery the Surgeon came out and told us that he was in recovery, and what they found. We were just so happy that he had made it through his first obstacle. They removed the grape fruit sized tumor that had perforated his bowel, removed 7inches from his small intestine, and removed a lot of the infection inside his abdomen. They were not however able to remove the small pieces of tumor that remained on the back of his bladder, it would have done more damage to remove that then the chemo would be doing when we were able to start that. The surgeon said that the tumor may have only been there about 3 weeks that is how we knew how aggressive this Cancer is.

Once Camron was stable our next challenge was to stop the tumors from growing but we couldn’t start chemo until his infection was completely clear. Once we had our diagnosis, he had the gastric tube removed, and he was feeling better we were sent home. We were told to come back in 5 days and see what his labs showed and if he showed signs of being free from infection and then we could start chemo right away. The night before Camron was having some back pain so we asked if we could get another CT to see if it showed anything more, again because this type of Cancer is so aggressive. While he was getting his CT done the Oncologist called me because they were watching for him to come back in, and said she was worried about his labs. After more labs drawn, CT done, and blood transfusion given they decided to admit us. They found three more masses in his abdomen and the rest of the tumor that they were not able to remove from behind his bladder had grown up and was pressing on his kidneys and his ureters. That next day was another obstacle. He was to have 4 different procedures done. Lumbar Puncture with his first Intrathecal chemo (into the spine), a bone marrow biopsy, a PICC placed, and Stents needed to be placed in his ureters. Good news, they were able to do all the procedures to start us down the path of Camron’s chemo treatment.
As we started our path to chemo they already had our road map and what we needed to do exactly along the way, hoping Camron’s body would cooperate, by handling the chemo well, responding to all the other medications and side effects that come with the chemo, and the times that we would be home trying to keep him from getting sick.

On March 11th, we received word while we were in the hospital that the masses were gone, he was tumor free, and was in 100% remission.
Since February 5th we have been inpatient 49 nights, been admitted and discharged 7 times each, and made many trips to the Emergency Department for neutropenic fevers.
Camron will go in on the 25th for more scans. We are praying that he will still be tumor free and he will remain in remission. He will then begin his 5th (and hopefully final) round of chemo.

Our journey has only just begun we realize that, they tell us that the worst is behind us. There will be many days, many scans, many labs drawn but we will continue to ensure that our Camron will stay with us. We thank all those that have given us their thoughts, their prayers, their undeniable love. We have felt your presence all along and have never doubted your faith along with ours.
Through this journey we have endured many new adventures, grown together as a family, realized all the good out there in the world, and have become so grateful for every moment that we have together. This has made us tough, this has made us stronger, and this has humbled us all for the rest of our lives.

Camron you are brave, strong and a inspiration to us all. You are MIGHTY and our HERO!

You can donate to Camron here www.psiadoreyou.com Every penny of your donation will go to Camron and his family to help with all the costs that this ugly cancer brings. We are sending all our love and prayers to this amazing family.